The Health and Safety Executive (HSE) have appointed a panel of nine members to provide independent expert knowledge and advice on workplace health.
The Workplace Health Expert Committee (WHEC), as it will be known, will provide an expert opinion on up and coming questions and developments, fresh evidence relating to present issues, and on the quality and relevance of the evidence base on workplace health issues.
Advice will be provided by the WHEC to the HSE's Chief Scientific Advisor and Director of Research Professor Andrew Curran and to HSE's Board on scientific and medical issues.
Professor Andrew Curran said: "I'm very pleased to have secured such a world-class team of experts in workplace health issues which will supplement our own in-house expertise in this area. I look forward to working with the Committee to help us develop new strategies to reduce causes of workplace ill-health."
The Chair of the committee will be Sir Anthony Newman Taylor who is the President's Envoy for Health and Director of Research and Development in National Heart and Lung Institute, Imperial College, amongst other things. He also has a wide range of experience from past research and previous positions held.
It is thought the main focus of the WHEC will be on chemical and physical hazards and human behavioural or organisational factors in the workplace that could lead to physiological and psychosocial ill health.
The HSE have commented on their website that it is hoped the committee will encourage collective working with stakeholders and partners along with helping to identify issues of potential concern to Government Departments and business.
